Lost & found

Restival is a uniquely off-the-grid festival, held in the remotest locations, and is building a reputation for the deepest reconnection, rejuvenation and self-rediscovery, as Eva Ramirez discovers

well travelled

Last summer, I took a two-week break from work, life and London to set myself a challenge. My goal was to get lost. I work in the wellness industry but, like so many of us, can find myself feeling the burnout effects of overexertion. Every so often, it gets to Sunday and I look back on my week to realise that I’ve been running on autopilot since Monday – work, workout, eat, socialise, sleep – often without stopping at all. I don’t put aside any time to tune out, which I’ve now come to realise, means there’s no room to tune in.

There was something about Restival, which I stumbled upon while scrolling through Instagram (the irony is not lost on me) that spoke to me. I clicked on the link, and emailed the founder. The more I learned, the more I realised this had to be something I did alone. At 26, I’d never travelled on my own, but I signed up before any doubts or second thoughts could surface. This. Was. Happening.

Restival took place in a slice of desert that sits between Grand Falls, San Francisco Peaks and the Roden Crater, in a place the Native American Navajo people call Dinétah, meaning ‘homeland’. Founder Caroline Jones set about bringing together the best parts of a festival and a retreat, after realising that people were craving an antidote to modern life. ‘I had grown tired of the old festival format and didn’t want to attend a retreat that involved lots of periods of silence or listening to gurus,’ she says.